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“Democratic lawmakers and activists criticized Sen. John Fetterman after a Wall Street Journal report found that the senator had shirked many of his duties as a U.S. senator—instead focusing much of his attention on backing Israel and appearing on Fox News,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Said Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D): “This report […]

Broadcom admits it put “too big a focus on VCF.”

A once-overlooked block of unicode that's invisible to humans is gaining ever wider use.

The Pentagon says the guidance is being updated after being online for one day.

As we do every Friday, we're turning Racket over to you, the readers.

We Are Living in the Fantasy World of 13-Year-Old Boys

Many of the tech billionaires who built our world have taken the wrong lessons from their favorite science fiction. They regard “humanness, and Earth itself … as a burden to be sloughed off.” Gal Beckerman contemplates the new book “The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State” by Jill Lepore.

Like Musk, Thiel and Sam Altman, I grew up reading Heinlein, Asimov and Adams. I found the writing inspiring. But I stopped taking it literally a long time ago.

Photos by Stacie Joy  The annual "Framing the Village" exhibition returned to St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery last night with an opening reception for its 2026 installment, "Independent Thinkers."  Curated by Marc Kehoe (below), the group show features work by roughly 65 independent local artists. Here are a few scenes from the reception... The exhibition continues through Sept. 30 in the Parish Hall at St. Mark’s Church, 131 E. 10th St. at Second Avenue. Regular viewing hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.  To find the Parish Hall, enter through the gates and follow the path on the right to the back of the church.

We count four separate lawsuits involving parties killed in last December's plane crash. Continue reading…

“Iran’s renewed attacks against Arab countries are raising the stakes for regional powers, with some saying they are losing hope that there’s any way out of the war — and that things will get worse before the November elections,” Politico reports. “The fear is that Iran is particularly motivated to increase strikes right now — […]

“President Donald Trump is expected ​to sign an executive order related to ‌beef on Friday, according to two sources familiar with the situation,” Reuters reports. “One of the sources said the order ​would pertain to country-of-origin labeling for ​beef.”

Some people are fans of the Seattle Seahawks. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Seattle Seahawks. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Your team: Seattle Seahawks.

Your 2025 record: 14-3. Super Bowl champions. One of the best teams in modern history if you go by DVOA, which I don’t because Aaron Schatz has never revealed the formula behind his hallowed metric. He could calculate it by mashing on an old Casio, for all I know. But here’s what I do know: These Seahawks won a title last year thanks to a playoff schedule that may as well have been drawn up by a kindergarten teacher:

Trump is already breaking ground on his massive 250-foot-tall “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery, despite the fact that the project has not even been approved by the federal review panel yet. Apparently, approvals are now just a formality when Trump wants to build himself a monument.

In a call with reporters announcing GPT-6 Astra, Greg Brockman talked about whether Astra qualifies as AGI: I do leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves if this qualifies for them. For me personally, I do think we’re there. As we reach AGI, whether it’s with Ast...

“John, if there is a decent bone left in your body, just quit. It’s an insult to decent people in our state for you to treat them and the office this way.” — Former Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), quoted by Punchbowl News, on reports that Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has lost all interest in his […]

“President Donald Trump warned Thursday night that Maria Bartiromo’s fans ‘will not be happy’ after Fox News abruptly parted ways with the longtime anchor,” Mediaite reports.

Dominique Herskind takes her heartfelt adult comedy ‘1969’ to Atlanta.

In the “As Much as I Loathe AI I Cannot Escape It” department, I’ve been accumulating some stray experiences with technologies that analyze, interpret information from photos, likely somewhere inside lurks what we lump as AI. And indeed, it’s useful. And interesting. Here’s a buffet of tidbit experiences and no grand conclusion. Carbs and Nutrition […]

A man who spent nearly 40 years behind bars for killing a 16-year-old Hudson Valley girl is back in jail after another arrest. Continue reading…

The singer reflects on her big win ... that she didn't really want. Continue reading…

Daniel Susac’s season-ending knee injury makes it difficult to evaluate the Giants’ outlook at catcher moving forward.